It occurred to me last week that I'd been pretty vague about what we've been up to lately and the plans we've been making & following through with over the past few months. Even to close friends and family, I hadn't been publicizing our plans because the truth is, we weren't really sure how or if they'd all unfold the way we wanted. 
At the beginning of LAST year, we got the idea to move back to Paris after we couldn't get Avienne into a full-time preschool in Austin. We'd kind of had our heart set on seeing her in her social element as soon as possible, and when we were still hanging out on the waitlist after a school-year had passed, we decided it was time to make the move back to the city we were both somewhat pining for anyway. There had never been a question of if we'd come back to Paris, just when and seeing how our luck was starting with the private school system in Austin, we decided it was a sign to pack our bags and move on back.

Super long story short, we pushed back our plans to move from September to January to finally, February. After contacting a handful of preschools in Paris without any luck finding an opening, we finally found the perfect school for Avienne that was opening at the beginning of the year and we put her name down to start as soon as possible. Some work commitments for Gui held him up in Austin longer than expected, but we didn't want to keep pushing  back Avienne's first day of school, so she and I spent a month in Paris without her beloved Papa. It was a pretty strenuous month for all of us, and when Gui finally arrived late last week, it was obvious his little girl wasn't letting him get away again for a long while. 

We have a mountain of tasks ahead of us now that we're back - all the legal and administrative crap, plus things like finding a home, job and dealing with our shipment set to arrive in a couple of months. So, for the last few days, we've been soaking up each other's company, establishing some semblance of a routine, and enjoying ourselves as one solid family unit together once again - a bit like reinforcement for a long battle of rendezvous, paperwork and heavy lifting to come. I think we're ready for it.